The present invention relates to a device for picking up stacks of products from a support.
In particular, the invention relates to a device for picking up individual stacks of cardboard cutouts, generally arranged on a pallet-like support in a plurality of rows and in a plurality of layers separated by supporting platforms constituted for example by a sheet of cardboard of appropriate thickness. In order to pick up individual stacks of cutouts, such as for example those used to package cigarette packs of the flip-top type, a device is known which comprises a thin lamina that is partially flexible and is inserted between a stack to be picked up and an underlying supporting platform.
The lamina is slideably supported at the base of a pick-up head which can move along perpendicular axes and has a bracket that is mounted above it and protrudes above the lamina.
The bracket supports presser elements that can be actuated, along vertical axes, by corresponding actuation means, and also supports, above the lamina, a photocell for checking the centering of the pick-up head with respect to the stack of cutouts to be picked up.
Once said centering has occurred, the pick-up head is lowered until appropriate sensor means detect contact with the platform that supports the stack.
At this point the presser elements are activated and move down so as to lock the stack of cutouts, while the lamina is advanced in order to be inserted between the platform and the stack; said stack is therefore clamped between said lamina and further presser elements that are mounted on said bracket.
Then the pick-up head is actuated in a conventional manner to lift the stack from the pallet and to transfer said stack to the inlet of a user machine.
In the operation of the above-described conventional pick-up device, the operation for inserting the lamina between the stack and the supporting platform is very difficult. The lamina jams against the edges of the lowermost cutouts of the stack, thereby damaging said cutouts.
This difficult insertion also does not ensure that all the cutouts of the stack are picked up correctly.